SHEPHERD'S ^^^E'EDL'E.—Scandia: Pecfen. 



Class Pentandria. Order Digynia. Nat Ord. IJMBELLiFERiE. 

 Umbelliferous Tribe. 



There is somethmg very pleasing in the old 

 English names of many of our wild flowers. 

 They are connected with rural haunts and 

 habits, and bear with them remembrances of 

 those old simplers and herbalists, who, though 

 they might have greatly overrated the virtues 

 of plants, yet found out many things respect- 

 ing them which have proved of use to succeed- 

 ing generations. Very often, too, they are 

 significant of some obvious feature of the 

 plant, or some property which distinguishes it. 

 Thus, the Shepherd's Purse has 'its seeds in 

 little heart-shaped pouches, formed like the 

 purses of olden times ; and the Shepherd's 

 Weather-glass foretells the rain by closing up 

 its petals ; and our Shepherd's Needle has very 

 peculiar seed-vessels, growing in clusters of five 

 or six, long, and tapering to a point, and each 

 as large, in some specimens, as a packing- 

 needle. The plant has in an earher stage 



